Editing Hygieia (section)

==Worship==
[[File:Hygieia by Alexander Handyside Ritchie, College of Physicians, Queen Street, Edinburgh.jpg|thumb|Hygieia by [[Alexander Handyside Ritchie]], College of Physicians, Queen Street, [[Edinburgh]]|left|upright]]
Hygieia's primary temples were in [[Epidaurus]], [[Corinth, Greece|Corinth]], [[Kos|Cos]] and [[Pergamon]]. At the [[Asclepeion]] of [[Titani|Titane]] in [[Sicyon]] (founded by [[Alexanor]], Asclepius' grandson), the Greek historian [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] remarked that a statue of Hygieia was covered by women's hair and pieces of [[Babylon]]ian clothes.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=COMPTON|first=MICHAEL T.|date=2002|title=The Association of Hygieia with Asklepios in Graeco-Roman Asklepieion Medicine|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24623700|journal=Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences|volume=57|issue=3|pages=317|doi=10.1093/jhmas/57.3.312 |jstor=24623700 |pmid=12211974 |issn=0022-5045}}</ref> According to inscriptions, similar sacrifices such as this were offered at [[Paros]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Pausanias, Description of Greece, Corinth, chapter 11|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160:book=2:chapter=11&highlight=health|access-date=3 June 2021|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>

Hygieia was also associated with the Greek goddess [[Athena]]. In the 2nd century AD, [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] noted statues both of Hygieia and of Athena Hygieia near the entrance to the [[Acropolis]] of Athens.<ref>Pausanias, I.23.4; the statement in [[Pliny's Natural History]] (xxxiv.80) ''[[Pyrrhus of Athens|Pyrrhus]] fecit Hygiam et Minervam'' has been applied to these statues: see H. B. Walters, "Athena Hygieia", ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'' '''19''' (1899:165–168) p. 167.</ref> "Athena Hygieia" was one of the cult titles given to [[Athena]], as Plutarch recounts of the building of the [[Parthenon]] (447–432 BC):
{{blockquote|A strange accident happened in the course of building, which showed that the goddess was not averse to the work, but was aiding and co-operating to bring it to perfection. One of the artificers, the quickest and the handiest workman among them all, with a slip of his foot fell down from a great height, and lay in a miserable condition, the physicians having no hope of his recovery. When Pericles was in distress about this, the goddess [Athena] appeared to him at night in a dream, and ordered a course of treatment, which he applied, and in a short time and with great ease cured the man. And upon this occasion it was that he set up a brass statue of Athena Hygieia, in the citadel near the altar, which they say was there before. But it was [[Phidias]] who wrought the goddess's image in gold, and he has his name inscribed on the pedestal as the workman of it.<ref>Plutarch. ''Life of Pericles'' 13.8, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Pericles*.html#13 on-line text].</ref>}}[[File:Hugieia-pentagram.svg|thumb|160px|''"Hugieia"'' ({{big|ύγιεία}}: health) was used as a greeting among the [[Pythagoreans]].<ref name="Allman1889">{{cite book |last=Allman |first=George Johnston |title=Greek Geometry from Thales to Euclid |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-gYCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA26 |year=1889 |publisher=Hodges, Figgis, & Co. |page=26}}</ref>]]However, the cult of Hygieia as an independent goddess did not begin to spread until the [[Delphic oracle]] recognized her, after the devastating [[Plague of Athens]] (430–427 BC), and in Rome after the [[293 BC|293 BC plague]] there.

The poet [[Ariphron]], from the Greek city-state [[Sicyon]], wrote a well-known [[hymn]] during the 4th century BC which celebrated Hygieia.<ref>Athenaeus, ''Deipnosophists'', xv.702, [http://www.attalus.org/old/athenaeus15.html#702 on-line text].</ref> Statues of Hygieia were created by [[Scopas]], [[Bryaxis]] and [[Timotheus (sculptor)|Timotheus]], among others, but there is no clear description of what they looked like. In the surviving depictions, she is often shown as a young woman feeding a large snake that was wrapped around her body or drinking from a jar that she carried.<ref>Similar images, though of a goddess in a more warlike aspect, represent Athena and [[Erichthonius of Athens|Erichthonius]].</ref> These attributes were later adopted by the [[Gallo-Roman]] healing goddess, [[Sirona (goddess)|Sirona]].

Hygieia was modified by the Romans into the goddess Valetudo, the goddess of personal health. There exists some debate about whether Hygieia can also be identified with the Roman goddess of social welfare, [[Salus]]; however, this has yet to be fully substantiated.